Fredrick Nzwili

Kenya has been opening its school doors to more women and creating strategies to spur their interest in math and science. As numbers change slowly, advocates are realizing they face a stubborn foe. Fifth in a series on higher education in Africa.

As Millie Odhiambo joins a spirited effort to turn back Kenya’s Nov. 21 constitutional referendum, women struggling for greater political representation in Somalia take heart from her example. Seventh in a series on emerging female leaders in Africa.

Human rights groups say Sudan’s north-south peace accord could be better on women’s rights. But women who have been living in exile and marginalized by the 21-year civil war are still celebrating. They say a window of opportunity has just opened.

Traditional practitioners of FGM in Africa have begun to back out of the business. That doesn’t mean it is over. Now many female teens are checked into hospitals under the pretext of an illness and a doctor performs the illegal procedure.

Female genital mutilation rites are beginning to be replaced by an alternative rite of passage in Kenya known as “Cutting Through Words.” The new ritual includes a week of seclusion and lessons on adult life.

Kenyan women running for Parliament hope today’s general elections will prove more positive than the campaign season itself, which has been marked by beatings of female candidates, power plays and a lack of funds for women politicians.

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It is being hailed as the most progressive state policy so far, going further than New Jersey, California and Rhode Island in various respects. But its showcase potential won’t be tested until the program gets going in 2018.